Rick Moss's Ebocloud Reviewed By Lavanya Karthik of Bookpleasures.com

Lavanya Karthik

Reviewer
Lavanya Karthik: Lavanya is from Mumbai, India and is a licensed
architect and consultant in environmental management. She lives in
Mumbai with her husband and six-year old daughter. She loves reading
and enjoys a diverse range of authors across genres.

Click Here To Purchase EbocloudIn
his gripping debut, author, Rick Moss offers us a fascinating , and
very seductive premise –networking with a strong social agenda,
connecting a world of strangers into close knit tribes , all part of a
benevolent electronic uber-family. An arresting image midway through
the book pretty much sums it all up– a stadium full of strangers
perfectly coordinated in a dance programmed and fed into their minds by a
giant virtual network . This is the ‘Ebocloud’, a vast community of
cohesive groups, aiming to change the world with its ambitious socialist
ideals and notions of family building. Mixing state of the art
connectivity with ideas derived from tribal notions of family
(specifically the peaceful and forward thinking Ebo tribe in the
now-defunct state of Biafra), the Ebocloud quickly finds a vast and
devoted following, spawning an energetic sub culture complete with its
own jargon, gestures and tattoos. ‘It’s the antiFacebook’, a
character quips, and indeed that is what the Ebocloud seems like,
replacing superficial ‘friending’ and self obsession with a system that
awards altruism and community spirit, and seeks nothing more than the
welfare of its believers . As for the dance, called Orchestrated
Movement, it is an illustration of the next step in the cloud’s
evolution, where “ebocousins” across the country can literally plug
their brains into the network, enabling the cloud to monitor their
responses, track their movements and even influence their choices and
actions. Against
this exciting backdrop runs the story of artist Ellison Luber, seeking
answers to unexplained attacks that have destroyed his home, left his
brother dead and caused his girlfriend, the mysterious Charlotte, to go
into hiding. Nothing could be further from his reclusive life than the
crush and bonhomie of the ebo , yet Luber finds himself drawn into its
cheery embrace as he sets out to unravel the mystery that is Charlotte

and her connection with the attacks. Before long, Luber even signs on to
become one of the first recipients of the dToo, the digital tattoo that
will let the Ebocloud cruise unhindered along his neural pathways .Smell
the Kool aid, the more cynical reader might observe, or wait for the
inevitable onslaught of cloud- controlled zombie armies. For where
there is the possibility of mind manipulation in science fiction, there
is always, always evil genius plotting world domination. Right? Well
yes, conflicted genius does make an appearance, as does an app that
persuades a mob into an act of vandalism, if only to save a life. And
no, for what Moss has in store for us is something more interesting
than Frankencloud on rampage .At
the heart of this book is another intriguing one – The Venaries of
Planet Flounce, a science fiction novel that enjoys a cult following
and that, with a character clearly based on the elusive Charlotte, just
might hold the key to Luber’s puzzle . Based in an alternate world
called Flounce, “Venaries..” tells the tale of a society run by
mammoth corporates, and sharply divided into the breedums , privileged
with a lifestyle that deems the use of one’s hands sinful, and a huge
menial class called the ‘touchables’ , doomed to a life of silent
servility. The venaries are female ‘touchables’ , employed as maids by
the breedums and , invariably, exploited and abused. Change – preceded
by a particularly violent civil war - sweeps in thanks to one breedum,
the ambitious reformist Aniston Penchast, aided by his shrewd venary ,
Lotte Char (equal parts pawn and player, in a role reminiscent of the
clone Sonmi in David Mitchell’s ‘Cloud Atlas’).Ebocloud
has a brisk, edgy pace that keeps you hooked to the plot, as it
alternates smoothly between Luber’s story and Flounce’s. Author Moss
displays a considerable talent for world building, designing both
Flounce and the Ebocloud with impressive detail. Cloud it may be, but
nebulous it isn’t – Moss gives us a technical scenario that is well
researched and believable, and Flounce is a tumultuous world I expect
lots of his readers will want to visit again.Given
how much I enjoyed the story and its progression right up to its
climax, I must confess to a little disappointment with the way things
work out - a rather morally conflicted resolution that seems to condone
the loss of a few for the greater good . While a character does attempt
to explain it away as not succumbing to ‘American-style moral
superiority’, this sentiment seems closer to the Tao of the breedum,
than anything Ebo. In every other respect, Ebocloud is a thought
provoking and exciting book that I would recommend to anyone interested
in speculative fiction.Click Here To Purchase Ebocloud